The Dark Hills Divide is a (2005) children's fantasy and mystery novel by American author Patrick Carman.

The book starts by Alexa going on a walk through the streets of Bridewell with her adventurer friend Thomas Warvold.

After twenty years, he eventually persuaded others to join him in a place most everyone believed was haunted, dark and dangerous.

The valley where Warvold settled, which is now called Lunenburg, filled up to capacity and provided no room for growth.

In the middle of the story, Alexa and her father have a race with a mailman named Silas Hardy whom they meet on the road.

Fortunately, Warvold comes just then (Pervis hides the spyglass) and takes Alexa for a walk which, as shown in the beginning of the book, ends in his death.

At dinner, Nicolas (Warvold's son) tells Alexa about his mother Renny's interest in the art of Jocastas.

That day, when Alexa is in her favorite nook again, she discovers that the medallions which the library cats Sam and Pepper have hanging from their collars, have Jocastas etched on them.

At the end of the passageway, outside the wall, Alexa is greeted by a short man named Yipes, who seems to have been waiting for her.

Darius, a wolf separated from his family, leads her to a tunnel under the walled road between Lathbury and Bridewell.

Once she is back outside, a rabbit named Malcolm takes her to the forest king Ander, a grizzly bear.

Later that day, Alexa visits Pervis in his cell and the two play a game of chess, in which the winner gets to ask 5 questions.

At first, Alexa hits him in the knee with a fire poker she took from the smoking room, but Ganesh takes it from her and kicks her in the ribs.

Yipes goes to the city to find help, and Alexa is rescued by her father and Pervis, who take her back above ground.